Non-explosive portable cutting devices usable for self-contained cutting of components and products made of metals and other hard materials are known in which a thermite composition is used. When such a cutting device is used, the thermite composition is ignited and burns at a high-temperature, creating a flame that is suitable for cutting.
A simple self-contained welding and cutting device (so called “welding pencil”) is described in Russian patent No. 2206437 (Berezhnoj, et al., 2003). This device includes a thin-wall tube having a thermite mixture in the form of a cylindrical pressed rod with an envelope of a combustible film material at one end. A plug closes the other end of the tube. Depending upon composition of the rod it is possible to perform welding, surfacing and cutting of metal.
A similar device—thermite composition pencil characterised by the use of a specific thermite composition in the form of a cylindrical molded rod, is described in Latvian patent No. 15122 (Berezhnoy, et al., 2016). One of the embodiments of the thermite composition pencil is provided with a connecting yoke adapted to assemble two or more pencils in a package having an enlarged energy output during burning of the thermite composition.
However, in the known self-contained cutting devices comprising a cylindrical pressed thermite composition rod or two or more such cylindrical rods the energy released from burning of the thermite composition is not used effectively enough for cutting of components. The sides of the components cut by the known cylindrical pressed thermite composition rod are not flat and parallel.